The Hero

The role of the "hero" in the ‘51 film is played by Army Captain Patrick Hendry whereas the "hero" in the ‘82 movie is Vietnam-veteran, helicopter pilot R. J. MacReady. One could hardly conceive of two leading characters that are more opposite from each other than these two.

Their differences begin immediately, and the two characters never converge after that. Hendry is first seen at an officer’s club filled with men, sitting among friends; MacReady is first shown sitting in his shack all by himself. Hendry is playing poker and wins; MacReady is playing chess and loses. Hendry drinks coffee; MacReady drinks whiskey. Hendry has a love interest in Dr Carrington’s secretary, Nikki, while there is no such sub-plot provided for MacReady’s character.

At first, both men are not in command of the research station. Hendry subsequently takes control solely on the basis of his military rank. MacReady takes command by virtue of his strong personality and sheer power of will. At one point Hendry gets tied up by Nikki to keep him from misbehaving. MacReady in turn has to tie down the rest of the men in order to bring them under control. Hendry blunders badly by blowing up the alien ship and giving orders that ultimately lead to the de-icing of the Arness Thing. MacReady never does fall into any blunders of his own.

Hendry never seems to have any original ideas. It is always others who tell him how to fight the creature. He doesn’t figure out that guns have no effect. He doesn’t come up with the notion of using kerosene. He doesn’t think of putting everyone in the generator room. He doesn’t think of using electricity. He doesn’t think of meeting the Arness Thing halfway up the connecting hallway. He doesn’t think of turning out the lights around the electrodes. One wonders exactly how Hendry supposedly achieved his captain’s rank, for he does a very poor job of leading the fight against the Arness Thing.

MacReady, in contrast, first alerts everyone to the alien attack against the dogs. He is the first to figure out that a flamethrower is needed to kill the Bottin Thing, even before it becomes obvious that guns are ineffectual. He comes up with the notion that the humans have to resort to burning and burying the Thing bodies in the laboratory and store room. He is the one who develops the famous blood test that separates the men from the beasts. And he also, after realizing that nobody’s going to survive, directs the others to blow up the camp in order to keep the Bottin Thing from surviving.

MacReady truly plays the part of a strong leader, reluctantly at times but effectively, especially when faced with the exigencies of his situation. Whereas Captain Hendry seems to be absorbed into the clichés of 1950’s perceptions of militaristic masculinity, MacReady constitutes his own man from start to finish, a true individual who by sheer force of personality is able to rise to the top. "MacReady qualifies as a heroic character because, through the strength of his will, he manages to maintain his individuality. He resists appropriation into the communality of the Thing, and asserts his individuality without hesitation."

This reading is supported by the fact that MacReady alone is confident of his humanity as the men face the threat of the alien mimic. He never doubts himself. When, for example, Norris is offered command of the camp, he has self-doubt written all over his face and says, "I’m sorry, fellas, but I’m not up to it." MacReady in turn is supremely confident as he takes command. After MacReady burns the contaminated blood and the crisis has finally hit everyone, he brazenly proclaims to the rest, "I know I’m human." In the tension-filled blood test scene, the other men are visibly fearful of what their blood samples may reveal. Windows, Nauls, and Childs are very relieved when their tests come out negative. MacReady, however, is totally confident throughout. He says, "Now I’ll show you what I already know," and dips the red-hot wire tip into his blood with no effect. Testing his own blood is done for their sakes, not his. "[MacReady] is already sure of who he is, and the strength of his conviction frames the story and propels the action. Any claim that The Thing lacks a story overlooks this point."

In spite of their stark contrasts, Hendry and MacReady do have something in common. In the end, Hendry is victorious in every way. He is credited with staving off the alien threat. He has held onto his authority and rank, and to top it off, he even gets the girl. MacReady can also be credited with his own victory in the end, although one of an entirely different nature. Even though the station is utterly annihilated and most of his people are dead, MacReady still has gained the ascendancy. For after all that’s been said and done, MacReady still gets to be the man he chooses to be. He has retained his personality and individuality in the face of an alien onslaught that was bent on destroying both. The bottle of whiskey MacReady holds in his hand in the final scene is his flag of victory that he waves to the world (more on this later). He’s still doing what he always wanted to do, and that’s enough for him. Yes, both Hendry and MacReady have their own versions of ultimate triumph, but even this tends to highlight the distinctiveness of the two men rather than any shared experience.

As we already noted, critics of the film allowed themselves to be so distracted by Rob Bottin’s special effects that they could no longer pick up on any subtleties, let alone those of the MacReady motif. MacReady is, in reality, a complex personage that brings a richness of depth to Carpenter’s film. The same, however, cannot be said for Captain Hendry in Howard Hawks’ movie.

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